A convenience store owner has said shopkeepers are being forced to tackle retail theft themselves, after posting a video online showing him and his staff confronting shoplifters.

Andrew Board, who runs Core Convenience Store – Premier in Newton Hall, shared several clips of his team stopping suspected shoplifters either as they were leaving the premises or shortly after they had left.

Speaking to Better Retailing, Board said theft is on the rise and staff are now having to “take matters into their own hands”.

He said: “It’s increasing, which is why we’re putting our foot down now, the police are doing all this donkey work, getting people into court and then they’re just given suspended sentences, basically just a slap on the wrist.

“These people are stealing directly from my pocket, and they get away with it, so I’m having to take matters into my own hands to a degree.”

SGF reveals ‘devastating’ retail crime impact costing avg. local shop £19,673 per year

To deter repeat offenders, Board said he is “extremely nasty” to them when retrieving stolen items, making shoplifters pay if they have money, detaining them until the police arrive and scaring “the living hell out of them”.

“I know the police would frown upon it,” he added. “But it’s, it’s a case of, it’s desperate times. We’ve got to do these things to defend our business and our livelihood.”

Figures from the British Retail Consortium’s annual crime survey released in January show retail crime is at its highest level on record. In 2023/24, incidents of violence and abuse rose to over 2,000 per day, up from 1,300 the previous year.

Board believes that stronger deterrents are needed to curb this trend. He added: “At the minute the corporate stores won’t even challenge, people are too scared to challenge. If people were too in fear of being caught it might reduce shoplifting.

“The courts are just letting them straight back out again to re-offend. There’s no deterrent. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime, so they will always gain from what they’re doing. Until there’s a reasonable deterrent in place, it’ll just continue.”

Read more Opinion: Taking retail crime prevention into my own hands